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Ryō Kurokiba
Ryō Kurokiba (黒木場 リョウ Kurokiba Ryō) is a 92nd Tōtsuki Generation Student and Alice Nakiri's aide. Appearance Ryō has a well built body. His notable traits include his long, unkempt black hair and his red eyes which has bags around them, giving Ryō wild appearance overall. For the most part, Ryō's facial appearance makes him appear lazy and slow. However, his facial appearance drastically changes when he ties on his bandana, causing his demeanor to become much sharper and fierce. His new persona is much more intimidating than his standard demeanor. Ryō wears a standard Tōtsuki Uniform, however he tends to keep his jacket unbuttoned and does not wear the standard tie. He also wears a dark colored tank-top under his uniform. Like Sōma, Ryō has a signature piece of headwear that he wears on occasion. He uses a long flame patterned bandana which he wears when he wants to have a more serious, intimidating look. When he is not wearing it, it is tied around his left wrist. His cooking uniform is generally a sleeveless chinese styled top. He also wears wristbands. In his youth, much of his traits remained the same, though his hair was much shorter. He still had his trademark bandana but his general outfit was a long sleeved shirt, long pants, and a white apron whenever he cooked. Personality For the most part, Ryō is normally very slow, lazy, and gloomy. His general demeanor lacks any sort of interest on what is going on around him, but he remains attentive to the needs of Alice. He is not shy to speak his own mind or criticize Alice in this form, but generally will only speak when necessary if he is with anyone but Alice. Because of the bond the two formed in their youth, Ryō is obedient to Alice's requests and protects her from any sort of threats. Many have likened his relationship to her like a dog protecting his master. His speech is formal and simple, but slow. However, Ryō has a much more passionate personality that only emerges once he wears his signature bandana or any sort of tight fitting headgear like a swim cap. This new demeanors is much more bold, wild, and untamed, akin to a wild beast, fittingly called his "Berserk Mode", according to Alice. His facial expressions also become much more savage and can instantly intimidate most with a single glance. His speech is also much more aggressive as he has no qualms as to whom he talks to. Even in his youth, his "mad dog" persona could intimidate even the most sea battered sailors and seasoned ruffian cooks into submission. However, if someone were to remove his headband, he will instantly revert to his usual gloomy personality. According to Alice, Ryō has a strong drive to win in competitions stemming from his rough childhood where useless chefs would be cast out of the pub he worked in. Ryō considers all kitchens to be a battlefield with the food a chef makes as a representation of their power. He thus loathes bonds between chefs as he believes that such soft feelings weakens a chef's true capabilities. To Ryō, making a consumer submit to the dishes one makes is the only thing important for a chef. As such, he has yet to find an opponent who holds the same fiery spirit he has when he cooks and gets annoyed when an opponent is either too meek or too calm. Regardless of his state of his personality, Ryō retains his "wild" instincts, which he honed to allow him to be a master of seafood. He is well aware of his personality duality. History Ryō grew up in a port town in Denmark where he worked at a local pub as one of its chefs. It was a rough environment that would have easily casted him out if he ever showed weakness. To survive he had to rely solely on his own skills, developing a tenacious fighting spirit in order to endure his hardships in the kitchen. Despite his young age, he eventually became the head chef of the pub and commanded complete authority over his fellow, much older, chefs. Thanks to Ryō's skills, the pub became the talk of the town and news soon reached the Nakiri International Company. Meeting Milady One day, after hearing rumors of the pub, Alice Nakiri paid it a visit. Though Ryō told her that the shop was temporarily closed so he could rest, Alice barged right in. Ryō grabbed her shoulder and told her that she could not be rude since he was a chef of the pub. Alice took an immediate interest in Ryō and soon brought her mother, Leonora Nakiri, to convince her to let her "adopt" Ryō as her aide. Annoyed by her insistence to make him her aide, Alice convinced him to duel her with Ryō becoming her aide if he lost. In their very first duel, Alice won decisively, but Ryō was not satisfied. Ryō and Alice engaged in hundreds of duels afterwards, but Ryō never won. After two years, Ryō finally won his first duel against Alice. Although Alice was upset by her first loss, Ryō finally acknowledged Alice and called her Milady for the first time. Soon after, Alice invited Ryō to come with her to Tōtsuki and he gladly accepted. Early Tōtsuki Life Spending the next few years with Alice, Ryō entered Tōtsuki Culinary Academy middle school section along with Alice as a part of the new 92nd generation. Sometime during their final middle school years, Alice challenged the Cutting Edge RS to a Shokugeki and won. As Ryō helped Alice clean out the Cutting Edge RS' club room the defeated former RS president tried to attack Alice, but Ryō able to stop him with little effort. During the 92nd Generation Orientation Ceremony, Ryō was one of many students whoattended orientation ceremony for the first year of the High School section of Tōtsuki. He was among the crowd who witnessed Sōma's entrance speech. Plot Tōtsuki Friendship and Rapport Training Camp Main Article:Hellish Training Camp Arc Making it through the first month at Tōtsuki, Ryō along with the other 92nd Generation students were sent to Tōtsuki Resort for the Tōtsuki Friendship and Rapport Training Camp. Ryō made it through the first two days without any problems. Third Day and Breakfast Buffet Challenge Later on the third night, Ryō and the remaining students were summoned to the main hall for a surprise announcement from Gin Dōjima. At 6 AM the next morning, the students will have to create 200 egg breakfast buffet dishes for the Hotel guests. With no time to sleep, Ryō and the other students quickly headed to the kitchens to begin selecting their dishes. Ryō accompanied Alice and the two eventually bumped into Erina Nakiri and Hisako Arato. As the Nakiri cousins exchanged insults, Ryō stood behind Alice, clutching two rubber balls that she had given to him, trying to look as intimidating as he could as Alice had instructed him to do so. The Nakiri cousins soon departed from each other and Ryō continued off with Alice without saying a word to Erina or Hisako. Later, when Alice decided to watch Sōma as he prepared, Ryō continued to accompany her and Alice accidentally bumped into him when she tried to leave. The following day, Ryō completed the task and met up with Alice in Hall "A" as she spoke to Sōma Yukihira and Erina. Alice told Ryō to tell Sōma about her history, but she ended up doing it herself when he was taking too long. After Alice finished telling Sōma what she needed to, Ryō quickly left the hall as the next assignment for the day was about to start. By the end of the fifth day, most of the students were extremely exhausted from the grueling camp. However, Dōjima announced that the 628 students that had made it to the end of the fifth day had passed the camp. Their final event was a lavish banquet prepared by the Tōtsuki Alumni. Ryō once again accompanied Alice for the banquet and the next day, Ryō packed up his belongings and returned to the academy. Tōtsuki Autumn Election Main Article: Tōtsuki Autumn Election Arc Shortly before the summer break, Ryō and Alice gathered with the rest of their classmates to see who had been selected to participate in the 43rd Annual Tōtsuki Autumn Election. Unsurprisingly Alice had been selected and assigned to the "B" Block while Ryō had been selected as well, but placed in the "A" Block. Alice told Ryō that it was expected for him to make it into the preliminaries and told him not to lose in the preliminaries. Ryō assured her that even if she were to face her, he would try to win, despite Alice's annoyance by his statement. The Nakiri Cousins's Vacation Main Article: Natsuyasumi no Erina During the summer break before the preliminaries, Ryō accompanied Alice on an outing to a local pool to relax. Alice invited Erina to hang out for the day. During their day at the pool, Ryō sat on a pool chair, watching the Nakiri cousins play as he guarded their belongings. As several of the local boys wanted to go and talk to the Nakiri cousins, Ryō put on a tight swimcap, causing his "mad dog" persona to emerge, scaring away the boys. After observing the cousin's day at the pool, Ryō noted that the two have a good relationship, despite the outward conflict they show. Preliminary Round After a month of preparation, Ryō returned to Tōtsuki and joined the 59 other participants for the Autumn Election Preliminaries. After a few inspiring words from Senzaemon, the Preliminary round officially began. Ryō bid farewell to Alice as he headed to the "A" Block area. During the cooking period, Ryō was among the many students who caught the attention of the "A" Block's head judge, Natsume Sendawara. Many in the audience were shocked when Ryō gloomy demeanor suddenly changed when he tied his bandanna around his head. As he proceeded to cut some spiny lobsters, Natsume was surprised by his surprising speed and precision. After an hour of cooking, Ryō finalized his dish and gathered with the 29 other participants for the judging round. All of the dishes presented first were immediately met with incredibly low scores, none of which managed to earn a single point from Natsume who did not eat more than a single bite of the curry given to her. However, this trend ended when Ryō presented his dish, a French Curry Lobster Rice with Cognac. Though its flashy appearance failed to impress Natsume, a single bite caused her to take a second bite for the first time. The flavor was described to be a "deep woody" taste of cedar and sandalwood. Ryō revealed that he used napoleon class cognac to enhance the flavor of his dish. The dish was good enough to make Natsume give him a score, but Ryō's dish was not done yet as he revealed that they could eat the brain of the lobster if they added droplets of cognac to it. Though Natsume initially refused to "slurp" the brains, Ryō effortlessly forced her to submit to her desire to eat it despite the "vulgar" act. After his impressive display Ryō earned the first satisfactory score with a 93. At the end of the preliminaries, Ryō tied for second with Sōma, qualifying him for the Main Tournament Main Tournament Quarterfinals The day before the first round of the Main Tournament, Ryō was summoned to Tōtsuki HQ. He is then found out the theme of the match was a ramen dish and that his first opponent was Megumi Tadokoro. Satoshi Isshiki informed them that they will prepare the noodles for their ramen for them and they would only have to choose the style they wanted the noodles to be. Ryō wasted no time by instantly chose the wide noodles. While Satoshi asked for his confirmation, Ryō answered that he was set on his choice. As the first match between Alice and Sōma concluded, Ryō was already backstage, queuing for his match. As Alice entered, upset from her loss, Ryō told her that her Temari Bento was too pretty and lacked the impact to "subdue" the judges. Though Alice angrily told him to know his place, Ryō reminded her that he has won more cooking battles than she has. As Ryō entered the arena, he immediately donned his bandanna as the match began. During the match, Ryō used a variety of fish leftovers as the dashi for the soup, which caused the crowd to believe that he was making a seafood ramen. Later, he was shown crushing lobster and shrimp shells for his stock. In the stands, Megumi's supporters were cheering loudly for her, causing Ryō to feel disgusted by the display. He further told Megumi that such sentiments were a weakness for a chef and called such bonds "trash". Megumi defended her friends and told him not to insult them, but Ryō continued to glare at her, causing her to flinch. Meanwhile, to enhance their ramen experience, the judges left their tables to visit both Ryō and Megumi's kitchen areas. Ryō vigorously finished preparing his noodles and topped his ramen bowl with rusk, causing great interest from the audience. Ryō presented his ramen dish first which he called Soup De Poisson Ramen. The judges were overwhelmed by the strong impact of his fusion dish. Upon closer inspection, Ryō revealed that the smashed lobster shells became a powder to enhance the flavor of his dish throughout each of the ingredients used. Though Ryō's dish caused most of the judges to submit, the last judge, Senzaemon Nakiri, still stood unfazed. Ryō's Ramen faced Senzaemon directly and impressed him enough to strip without making a single movement. Senzaemon commended his strength and admired his courage. Up in the stands, many of the cullinary guests in the audience began sending aides to begin to scout Ryō. Though Ryō's dish immediately removed all attention away from Megumi, she continued to cook unfazed and finally presented after Ryō's presentation. As Megumi's dish began its judging round, the judges were amazed by the depth of her flavor despite the elegant, simple appearance. Ryō became interested enough to ask for a sample of her ramen as he handed her a sample of his. One taste caused Ryō to realize her hidden strength beneath her physical shortcomings. He acknowledged that Megumi was a worthy opponent and declared that he will not lose to her. As the judging for Megumi's dish concluded, Senzaemon took out his brush to declare the winner. Ryō's name was written, meaning that he would advance to the semifinals while Megumi was eliminated from the tournament. Semifinals Immediately after the Quarterfinals concluded, the participants for the Semifinals received a notice for their upcoming match. Ryō learned that his opponent was Akira Hayama and his theme was a western-style dish. With a week to prepare, Ryō spent it preparing for his match. On one particular day, Alice was searching for him and found him doing push-ups in his room. Although she was happy to see him preparing, she immediately sprayed a can of air freshener into his room due to the smell of his sweat. Annoyed, Ryō walked out of the room to take a shower like she asked. On his way out, he told her that she looked quite happy despite her loss to Sōma. Alice took this as a challenge and the two went off to have a cooking duel. The results of this match is unknown. On the day of the Semifinals, Ryō sat in the waiting area as the first match, [[Yukihira Vs. Mimasaka Semifinal Shokugeki|a Shokugeki]], commenced. After the conclusion of the match, in which Sōma was victorious, Ryō entered the arena to begin his showdown against Akira. The match began with Ryō bringing out an eel, slicing it open with an eel knife. As he looked over to Akira's station, he was annoyed by his opponent's calm demeanor. However Akira retorted that his nose makes it hard for him to lose. With the flair and impact from Akira's spice cooking, the crowd loudly cheered for Akira, while Ryō went silent, too focused on his cooking to notice or care for the audience's opinions. As he continued to cook, he tried to intimidate Akira, saying that no matter what kind of fancy spices he uses, Ryō's dish will overpower it in the end. Suddenly, Ryō had a vision of a talon about to grab him as Akira took out more spices to finish his dish. Akira presented his dish first, overwhelming the judges with the powerful aroma and taste of his Canard Apicius. Sustaining a heavy blow to his ego, Ryō looked like he was down for the count. However, Sōma noticed that he had not lost the fire in his eyes. Ryō pulled out his last trump card as he presented his Eel Matelote. Even with the nice presentation, the judges were still reeling from Akira's dish. Taki Tsunozaki was not impressed to eat it, but Ryō commanded her to eat the dish before it became cold, much to her annoyance. With a single bite, the judges were shocked to learn that he added japanese plum to the dish, causing a harmonious contrast between the eel's fatty taste with the plum's sourness. As the judges recovered, Ryō instructed them to mix the garnish of Broice with the mash potatoes along with the eel meat and sauce and to eat without restraint. Under the spell of the dish, the judges felt that they were no more than prey to Ryō's power. After the tasting round concluded, Ryō and Akira watched as the judges decided on their verdict. Unlike the previous matches during the Tournament, the judges were frozen, unable to decisively decide the winner. Hinako Inui and Fuyumi Mizuhara decided to vote for Akira while Gin Dōjima and Taki Tsunozaki voted for Ryō. With Sonoka Kikuchi unable to decide the winner. Her indecisiveness nearly caused an uproar, though Ryō literally did roar at her, until Gin stepped in and asked the management committee to make a special circumstance for the final round given the splendid showcase of Ryō and Akira's match. It was decided that the final match of the 43rd Autumn Election will be a three-way battle royale between Ryō, Akira, and Sōma. Road to the Finals Ryō in particular was not pleased by the result and even roared at the T.S. Newspaper Club who was interviewing him, and needed to be restrained by Alice while venting his frustration. He later looks up in annoyance at the booth Sōma is in after his declaration of feeling like he got a bargain deal to defeat both Akira and Ryō during his own interview. Satoshi then entered the arena, wheeling out a large block of ice which he promptly smashed to reveal the main ingredient of the final round: Pacific Saury, a fish that would bring out the strong points in each of the finalists, in Ryō's case, his heavy usage of seafood which Pacific Saury falls under provides a highly valuable advantage for him. Immediately after the announcement was made, Ryō confronted Akira, calling him a one-trick pony with only a brain for spices, stating that with all of his cards dealt, he would defeat Akira and Sōma in the finals. However, Alice suddenly removed Ryō's headband, instantly calming him down as the two proceeded back to the Nakiri Mansion. On their way out of the Arena, Ryō asked Alice if they could have a cooking duel as soon as they returned so he could quell his uneasiness from the results of his match. Cooking Style *'Seafood' - Ryō has great knowledge in the usage of seafood, most notably crustaceans, mainly lobsters. He has demonstrated great skill with a knife, able to crush Lobster shells with it and even cut them with extreme precision. Growing up in a port town in Denmark, Ryō became an infamous individual as the head chef of a pub at a young age. His skill allowed him to command complete authority over the adult staff as his cooking was vastly superior to theirs. Ryō's style of cooking is most notable for his ability to concentrate flavors for maximum impact, to the point where it transcends logic. Alice has recognized his skill and despite having cooking duels with him everyday their record is almost even, with it being noted that Ryō apparently has more cooking duel wins between the two currently and had won his Autumn Election quarterfinal match while Alice did not. Special Skills *'Instinct' - Ryō's natural affinity for seafood allowed him to have a good sense ingredient quality of fish and other seafoods. As demonstrated at the fish market during the week prior to the Finals, Ryō demonstrated the extent of his instincts for seafood quality as he picked a pacific saury that appeared to be lower quality than the one Sōma had picked, however when a side by side sashimi comparison was made, Ryō's was much tastier. *'Molecular Gastronomy' - Although not as skilled as Alice, through the numerous years of duels between the two, Ryō picked up a few food science skills from Alice including the use of droppers and heat-resistant cooking film. Dishes *'French Curry Lobster Rice with Cognac' - Ryō's curry dish involved with lobster and cognac, a French alcohol. The cognac in particular was the highest quality, giving the dish the impression of the woods. However the dish was not done just from the initial appearance. He encouraged the judges to eat the spiny lobster's brain with droplets of cognac. This final part of the dish sent the head judge, Natsume Sendawara's mind into space! *'Soup De Poisson Ramen' - Ryō's Ramen dish combines French Cuisine's Soup De Poisson with ramen to create a fusion dish that is both hearty and full of impact. Adding a generous coating of smashed dried crustacean shells, the dish's rich flavor is an instant knockout to those who eat it and can even cause the Food's Demon King to strip without a single movement. *'Eel Matelote '- A French recipe adaptation by Ryō using eel. The eel is boiled with red wine while fried with a crépinette fat netting. Inside the eel is an explosive combination with the sourness of Japanese plums. Combined together with its garnitures this dish can make anyone who eats it abandon all restraint and surrender to their most base desires to simply gorge it all down. *[[Autumn Pacific Saury Cartoccio|'Autumn Pacific Saury Cartoccio']] - A acqua pazza like dish utilizing the usage of Heat Resistant film to create a delicious pacific saury dish that submerges anyone in its rich flavor. It showcases the bond that Ryō and Alice have developed over the years. Cooking Duel Records Autumn Election Record Misc. Cooking Duels Trivia *If written in Kanji, Ryō's name can mean "coolness". Kurokiba translates to Black Lumberyard. *Although he made his full appearance in Chapter 28, his name has only been revealed at Chapter 53, 25 chapters after his proper debut. Prior to this, Kurokiba was often addressed as Alice's Partner. *Prior to his official debut, Ryō made a cameo appearance during the opening ceremony at Chapter 4 in a prototype of his current design. His hair was much tidier, he had a bandage across the bridge of his nose, and he wore a yin-yang necklace. References Navigation Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Tōtsuki Autumn Election Participant Category:Tōtsuki Culinary Academy Students Category:Students Category:92nd Generation Students